About
I am fascinated by documentaries. How they replay our memories, fundamentally simple to start like ABC. Yet it’s a magical form of mastery. Be creative and it can sow possibilities. Scatter like branches of sequoia trees, essential are its roots of integrity, glass shouldn’t break when there is no key. Continue to forge till mind and soul agrees, I work to do justice to stories.
— OKJ
Born in Singapore
Growing up in this unique tiny cityspace — a young country where the only natural resource are its people and scarcity motivates pursuits — provided the backdrop of my dreams.
Most Singaporeans, myself included, spend their first quarter-of-a-century going through its structured program of education and development.
In that time, one is expected to learn knowledge, find passion and realise dreams.
People are shaped by their environment and Singapore is a land of juxtapositions.
A Life for My Love
People are moulded by their loved ones as well.
Luck has to be acknowledged for my family — my two loving parents who had the capability and capacity to spend both money and time to enable my younger brother, two younger sisters and myself to grow at our pace and responsibility.
In 2008, at the age of 15, a year before I was to take the Singapore-Cambridge GCE O-Level National Examinations, I developed a belief for existing that gripped me ever since — to work towards replicating such an environment for my future family.
In 2010, I met a girl who became my wife a decade later.
Paradigm Shifts of Recordings
Fortune also came in the form of early connectivity to technology. Growing up in the late 90s provided kids like me with the intriguing experience of transitioning from analogue to digital, and a world that was becoming increasingly globalised and interconnected.
In this generation is the know-how to use both a flip phone and a smartphone, a cassette tape and spotify, an abacus and a computer.
It was during such a time, when terrestial television brought the wonders of documentaries into the comfort of our homes — where from my sofa, I visited factories of supercars and became aware about the mysteries of the universe.
The only constant is change.
Yearning to Communicate
Curious by nature, talkative in person — I spouted what I learnt with glee and a smile. But my words left much to be desired and miscommunications grew with frustrations.
I yearned for the satisfaction of being heard as well as the relationships that are formed from such a foundation.
In retrospect, this is why I love documentaries — for what they can do, for what they had done.
Singapore has many stories of possibilities. Documentary Storytelling was not yet a part of it.
But if there is one thing that is better than the best, then that is to be first.
Art of The Interpersonal
The obvious place to learn was within a pillar of Singapore’s economy — tourism.
At a time when Singapore’s landscape changed once more to feature two integrated resorts, I worked on the subtleties of hospitality and the interpersonal at Nanyang Polytechnic and Resort World Sentosa.
The latter was an attachment to the Rooms Opertions and Training department where an intern had special access to regular touchpoints with the gatekeepers of the entire sprawling holiday destination.
But this industry was never the solution I sought for my life.
My journey continues.
New Paths in Life
Soon after my three-year stint at Nanyang Polytechnic, a new chapter awaits — a common one for every Singaporean son.
With conscripted enlistment into two-years of military services just six months away, this mitigated my natural risk adversion. After failing a university entrance interview, I was nudged by the incident to improve my writing, specifically for what I love.
I worked at it through the months, and still do till this day. Earnsty open doors and later the army thought me to marry dreaming with planning.
I am stumbling onto new paths in life, and through it I would discover what serendipity meant.
Serendipity and Possibilities
Two year in the army and four weeks into a new chapter at the National University of Singapore, I was met with a unexpected proposal — to led an expedition for Tembusu College to Komodo National Park and appreciate the complexities of nature conservation.
I did not hesitate to make it my own.
With the collective potential of 30 youths and staff, we trailblazed a new way of organising student-led international expeditions.
During which, I made my first documentary, possible only due to good samaritans and willful, youthful ignorance.
It took everything I pride myself to know to make it through those 11 months. And at the end, it felt like it was not enough.
Leap of Faith
After six months of recouperation, I confronted my dreams with honesty by making another documentary, this time a work of intimate connection. And in its process lay the answers I sought.
More good samaritans were met along my journey, my queries to their kindness answered simple reminders to pay it forward.
While more challenging than the first, my second documentary embued me with the confidence to make this craft a way of life.
The rest is still in the works.
